Runup coincides with more police pressure on criminals
LUCKNOW: The countdown to the Uttar Pradesh Investors’ Summit scheduled on February 21-22 in Lucknow has coincided with the police stepping up pressure on criminal gangs active in the state.
Twenty criminals were killed in police encounters since the announcement about the summit was made in November last year, according to figures available with the state government. In all, 31 criminals have been killed since the BJP came to power in UP on March 19 last year.
The law and order situation was a major deterrent for industrialists who wished to invest in UP, businessmen told chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the first meeting of the UP State Investment Board held on January 2 in the run up to the investors’ meet, an official familiar with the matter said.
The chief minister assured the head of corporate houses that concrete measures were being taken to improve the law and order situation.
A senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “Immediately after the Investment Board meeting, the state government directed top officials of the state home department and the state police to crack down on criminal gangs.”
That the police are in hot pursuit of the criminals can be gauged from the fact that on Tuesday the police killed a notorious criminal and nabbed 14 others in encounters in Azamgarh, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Amroha, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Meerut districts.
Encounters were reported in Bijnor, Bareilly, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar and Gorakhpur districts on Wednesday morning too.
Inspector general of police (public grievances) Vijay Singh Meena said the police nabbed four hardened criminals in operations in various districts on Wednesday. One policeman was also injured in an encounter, he said.
While the state police have launched an operation against criminals, the state legislative assembly has passed the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill (UPCOCB) to check organised crime.
Parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Khanna said the police had killed 31 criminals in 921 encounters (after coming to power).
While 1835 criminals were arrested, 180 were injured in encounters, he said.
The police encounters have continued despite the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking a report from the chief secretary on the killing of 19 criminals in police encounters.
Addressing a public meeting in Ghaziabad on November 19 last year, the chief minister had said, “Criminals in the state will either be sent to jail or killed in police encounters.”
Taking suo motu cognizance of media reports about the state government allegedly endorsing killings in police encounters, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) directed the chief secretary to submit a detailed report within six weeks.
A home department officer said, “The police have opened fire on criminals in self-defence. In a majority of cases, the police told criminals to surrender but when they challenged the might of the police by firing, then only the police retaliated. Around 90 police personnel have been injured in encounters and half-adozen lost their life. Recently, a police constable Ankit Tomar was killed in an encounter with the Sabir gang in Shamli district.”
After an alleged criminal Sumit was killed in an encounter in Gautam Buddha Nagar on October 10, the Gujjar community launched an agitation, alleging that police killed Sumit in a fake encounter.
The police not only managed to cool the tempers of the Gujjar community but also nabbed remaining members of the Gujjar gang.
Professor Rajesh Kumar Mishra, former head of the sociology department in the Lucknow University, said the public had accepted the killing of criminals in police encounters as these had been endorsed by charismatic political figures and the media.
Terming the killings and people’s reaction a socio- psychological phenomenon, Mishra said it remained to be seen if the killing of criminals would bring down the crime graph in the state.